HIRA 2003 May report

- Mon 28th Apr 2003

This month's regular report from Hayling Island Residents Association covers plans to extend the Billy Cycle Trail across the bridge to Havant, Regional Assemblies, Housing in South Hayling and the Seafront railway.Consultation on Billy Cycle Trail extension to Hayling.




W S Atkins, as consulting engineers to HCC and HBC recently provided interested parties with a set of drawings. These outlined their initial proposals for the extension of the Hayling Billy Trail from the old railway crossing in Langstone to the South side of the bridge to Hayling.




Members of the Hayling Island Residents’ Association studied the proposals and then attended the meeting at Langstone arranged by the consultants this being followed by a further session in the Civic Offices. Some 30 people attended.




Our view of the options as a result of studying the drawings , talking to participants and attending the review at the Council Offices are presented below.




On initial study of the proposals we immediately reached the view that a solution involving elements of both the options presented by W S Atkins was preferable to either option individually.




We preferred the cycle track on the west side of the bridge to continue behind the houses on the west of the road (the old railway line in essence) and to cross the road to the southern end of the trail to Havant in the region of the Mill Lane junction.




We preferred the route crossing the bridge on the east side to continue on that side, crossing Langstone High St. and continuing on that side to the entrance to the trail to Havant.




The reasons for the above conclusions were that they provide better continuity on both routes and that linking to the Billy Trail on the Island only needs one crossing of the main road in each direction. They potentially eliminate the need for a light controlled crossing in the vicinity of the Ship, though there may be other reasons why this should be provided.




Crucially, the route along the east side of the road allows cyclists from the main residential areas of Langstone to access Havant and the Island without repeated crossing of the road. This was brought out strongly at the site inspection by residents of Langstone who wished to get to Havant easily and also those who wished to travel to the Texaco Garage Shop on the Island which is the nearest place at which they can buy papers, groceries etc.




A very practical reason for the route behind the houses on the west side being preferred is that it is clearly the best one and that the land purchases needed to provide a route in front of the houses would be prohibitively expensive and the cycleway would be unlikely to materialise as a result.




A very practical reason that the outlined route along the east side of the road is preferred is that all the land needed to implement that route appears to be in the hands of the Local Authority already if the line of the existing chain link fence is in fact the boundary.




HIRA is writing to Atkins putting forward these views. If the scheme is implemented it will make recreational cycling off the Island much more attractive. To meet the requirement of commuting still needs much work to be done.






Regional Assemblies.




Regional Assemblies are being discussed in various fora and, if implemented, they will ultimately influence local activities. It is hard to get enthusiastic about another layer of government if one remembers all the fuss recently about parish councils.




At the higher level, regional assemblies will provide many opportunities for local politicians to increase their influence but they will take away much power from the county councils perhaps. Hence the dilemma, does one risk loosing power at county level, but gaining it at a higher level.




If an assembly were to come into being it would cover all SE England, omitting London of course. It would seem to coincide with the local MEP electoral region.




At the parish council level of course local people could at least have related to such a level of participation but the enthusiasm even for that seems very limited.




Much may be heard about this in future and the local residents’ organisations are paying attention to the process but it is much too early to reach any conclusions on the matter or even to provide sensible views on the matter.






More housing units.




At our last committee meeting we discussed 26 more housing unite at Rook Farm and in Mengham Lane. While both developments may be quite acceptable in strictly planning terms, as I noted last week, how can their march be limited! It is not difficult to identify sites in S. Hayling that could accommodate hundreds more houses in future and if we are not careful this may be the extent of development in the coming years.






The Beach Railway.




The beach railway appeared on TV recently, heralding its imminent opening. In spite of the considerable opposition to the scheme in its early days, it is clear that the residents of Hayling are not all against the scheme and many are looking forward to its operation.




As it will become a major feature of the Island’s landscape and, hopefully, a successful tourist attraction it would be churlish not to wish the railway enthusiasts well and that it comes up to their expectations.






- Tony Higham


Hayling Island Residents Association

By forum user, Mat